100 Day POP: Cooking

Once you become exceptionally comfortable with something - I think that is when creativity really starts to shine through. Or rather, it can. Sometimes a rut is just a rut. Way back when I first starting cooking for myself [and others] one dish that seemed rather intimidating was risotto. However, once I tried it for myself, the intimidation factor was gone [and that recipe remains one of my favourites]. And now making risotto is so easy that I don't need a recipe, though I often turn to them for inspiration. Risotto needs the following elements: a fat [butter or olive oil], a flavour base [I love shallots and garlic, but just garlic and onion is good too], a punch of something [generally white wine, though I favour vermouth because it keeps forever and I'm not a wine drinker - also, you can use something like dried mushrooms or something - anything with a little punch], rice [I use aborio pretty much exclusively, but any kind of rice will work - even icky brown rice], stock [or water if you don't have any - add flavour elsewhere - but it don't get much cheaper than stock in cube form - sacrilege I know for foodies, but deal with it] cheese [Parmesan is most traditional] and then other add ins [I tend to do @ least one vegetable and one fresh herb]. And then, just some stir time. I think this is what freaks people out about risotto - you have to give it attention. The whole process can be accomplished in about 40 minutes, but you will need to stand there [or in my case, run back and forth between the TV and the kitchen] and stir the pot every two minutes or so as you slowly add the stock.

Last night's risotto was hardly a revolution, but very warm and comforting fall food all the same. I made it using a mix of mushrooms [dried porcini, button and baby portabellas] and a mix of cheese [Parmesan and Romano - I'm so into Romano cheese lately that I put it on almost everything]. I must say, I'm very glad that I've warmed up to mushrooms. I mean, as a vegetarian they are almost entirely impossible to avoid, but they just give so much flavour. Sometimes the texture still weirds me out - it's like some kinda meat - but I get around this by slicing them and cooking them just enough [too much is bad, raw is also bad]. The risotto was just pure shroomy goodness - each bite of rice had mushroom [and cheese] flavour. Very decadent, but also [and this is something worth noting] entirely low-fat. Again, this is something that risotto purists might want to not acknowledge, but I love having calorie allotment left over for a soup bowl of French vanilla frozen yogurt.